


The Truth In The Teeth

by GretchenSinister



Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-10
Updated: 2019-06-10
Packaged: 2020-04-24 09:04:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,041
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19170085
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GretchenSinister/pseuds/GretchenSinister
Summary: Original Prompt: "Since we saw no father in ROTG, I’m going to assume jack’s dad died or something. That would have left him in charge of hunting and bringing in money for the family.I want a fic where pitch finds pippa’s (going with that name until proven wrong) tooth box, aqnd finding a terrible ending. Since jack, the man if the house, died, there was no one to bring in money and food. Pippa ended up starving to death a year after jacks death. Pitch uses this fact to break jackBonus points if:- jack completely shuts down. He doesnt even cry, he just goes into shock.- the guardians dont believe it until toothiana mounfully confirms it.- pitch feels absolutely no remorse for showing him that."Okay, so…we’ve got the elements of Pitch telling Jack what the prompt says, and being an asshole, naturally. BUT. A) We know that even the little tooth fairies can’t see memories that don’t belong to them. B) Widows without grown sons don’t just lay down and starve, even in 1712. I mean, what the fuck.So the true facts in the matter are kind of different.





	The Truth In The Teeth

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on Tumblr on 1/16/2016.

“You know your death was for nothing, Jack!” Pitch calls out, brandishing a tooth box like he intends to do physical damage with it. “I have Pippa’s tooth box right here—little Pippa Overland, with a tooth box not all the way filled. Why, she probably lived less than a year after you saved her! Because you were foolish with your sacrifice, you gave everything you had, meaninglessly. With your mother widowed, who would work? Who would take care of them? That was your responsibility, Jack, and you died, you went away, you left them because you didn’t know enough to lie down on the ice, you didn’t think to call for help, you didn’t—” He finally breaks off when Tooth sneaks up beside him and wallops him in the jaw, taking the tooth box back.  
  
“I  _knew_  there had been something missing!” she exclaims. “We just hadn’t checked all the memorial halls yet, and—oh. Oh no.” Jack has fallen to his knees, and North and Bunny are starting to have some trouble keeping the shadows away from him, even though the shadows aren’t trying to attack anyone but Jack. “Sandy! We need to get out of here!”  
  
Sandy salutes her and forms a blunt-tipped spear. Putting Pitch to sleep hasn’t been helping them make any progress against his now-frequent attacks, but it makes the shadows disappear, and has always let them get away so far.  
  
It’s an easy shot this time, thanks to Pitch not being quite back on his feet from Tooth’s punch. He collapses in a heap, all his shadows vanish, and the Guardians are back in the sleigh before the dreamsand takes shape over his head.  
  
*  
  
Back at the Pole, Jack refuses both hot and cold drinking chocolate, a blanket, and sitting next to an open window. When North and Bunny insist that Pitch must have been lying, he only shakes his head.  
  
North frowns and turns to Tooth. “Pitch  _was_  lying, wasn’t he? It would be too convenient for Jack’s actual past to be so useful to him in battle. He has been attacking Jack specifically, lately, so he said this to shock and hurt him, making him easier to fight.”  
  
“Well,” Tooth says, and North, Bunny, and Sandy all face her with varying expressions of alarm. “It is true—” She stops while Sandy throws dreamsand over Jack. “Oh. I should have thought. So,” she continues more quietly, “it is true that the tooth box isn’t all the way full. And it is true that it’s Pippa Overland’s. That means that Pippa did die before losing all her baby teeth. But what Pitch couldn’t know, unless he was there, is why and how she died. No one but the owner of the teeth and me can actually see the memories within the teeth. If Pitch  _has_  figured out how to do so, that would be a sign of an enormous change in his powers—big enough that I doubt he’d be doing all the little frequent attacks that we’ve had to deal with recently.”  
  
“We need to figure out what really happened to Pippa, then,” Bunny says. “We’ve got to know the truth, otherwise we’ll be no help to Jack.”  
  
Tooth nods. “This should only take a moment.” She brushes her fingers along the enameled top and it disappears, revealing the teeth inside.  
  
*  
  
When Jack wakes, the other Guardians are seated in chairs nearby, looking worried, solemn. “Hi,” he says quietly. “So you know how useless I am as a Guardian, now, right? Couldn’t even save my sister. Why’d the Moon think I was doing something good, I mean….”  
  
“Jack, I looked at the memories,” Tooth says. “And it’s true that your sister died about a year after you. But her death had nothing to do with you not being there as a provider. You know your memories were fragmentary, right? We’ve talked about that—how it was hard for them to fit into the three hundred years your memory already was trying to contain.”  
  
Jack nods. “Yeah, I don’t remember much from my first years as Jack Frost. Just really big things.”  
  
“And you didn’t stay around people that much,” Tooth goes on.  
  
“What does this have to do with anything?” Jack asks dully.  
  
“You’re not an expert on how people lived back then,” she says. “And what Pitch told you relied on some pernicious myths. Just because there was no man in the household didn’t mean your mother and sister would have laid down and died. Your mother knew what she was getting into, living on the frontier like that. From what I could tell in your sister’s memories, she had been taking care of you both, on her own and with help from the rest of the little settlement—community was important, and your family was part of it—for as long as your sister was alive. Your help made things easier, but that’s because you were another person in the family, not primarily because you were male. Anyway, the point is: your sister didn’t die because you weren’t there as a man in the household.”  
  
“But she still died,” Jack says.  
  
“She died of measles,” Tooth tells him. “The only thing that could have helped her wouldn’t be invented for over two hundred years.”  
  
After a long, long moment, Jack nods. “Do you think…do you think Pitch actually believed what he was telling me? Or was he just trying what he thought was the best way to hurt me? Could there have been some other reason why he said the particular things he did? Something that might be related to the increase in his attacks?”  
  
“I’m curious about his saying that you didn’t think to call for help,” Tooth admits. “From what you’ve told us, you acted very quickly, and there wasn’t anyone close enough to help with the situation as if unfolded.”  
  
“If it has something to do with Pitch, though—is hard to say,” North says. “Is very difficult to find out things about Pitch.”  
  
“But worth it, if we can stop him from pulling another stunt like he did today,” Bunny says.  
  
The others vehemently agree, and Jack manages a small smile up at all of them. 


End file.
